The Columbus TNNA Market was fabulous as usual! I love taking classes and meeting and talking to the designers in person. I took 5 classes this year to make up for not taking any last year due to my nephew’s wedding. My first class was with Laurie Wathen from Chandail in Texas. The canvas was a lovely floral design from Ann Wheat-Pace. I ordered several of her designs but my favorite piece is an Easter tree shirt that Laurie is doing a stitch guide on. The class used several different stitches I had not used before including a cast-on stitch similar to a bullion but with a side seam to add another dimension plus it was a little easier than a regular bullion when pulling it off the needle.

The second class was from Julia Snyder from Dallas on a Raymond Crawford canvas called The Modern Tree. It consists of 25 different ornaments done in Kreinik and beads. I will bring the in process canvas and stitch guide in the shop for anyone who is interested in seeing the tree develop. One of the most interesting ornaments is to do 2 Jessica’s on top of each other to give a lot of dimension and then it is actually covered in beads. Another of my other favorites was an ornament of stacked beads. There is also a striped beaded ornament that is the same beads but done on different colored beading thread. This shows you how picking different colors can make a difference in the appearance of the beads.

The third class was an embellishment class with Cynthia Thomas. This was showing different ways to add more dimension and fun to a piece, We ironed (and melted) Renaissance Angel Hair, added sequence, padded noses, learned the gather stitch for hair or fur or ruffles……It is a simple stitch but can be used with many different threads for different technique effects. We worked on rouching. I had did this with Sparkle Rays but it can be done with Kreinik and almost any stranded thread.

My fourth and fifth class was with Amy Bunger. She is witty, informative, and an unbelievable teacher. If you ever have the chance to take a class with her it is worth every penny. I was so impressed and excited by her techniques that I have signed up for her 12 piece Nativity Home Study by Kelly Clark. If you are interested I will order the Home Study for any of you and we can pay the shipping cost through the store. We can also do this as a stitching group in the store and help each other with any problems. We will have access to Amy too for any questions. Each of her Home Study stitch guides include all of the threads and an 18-20 page guide with her techniques explained. See http://www.amybunger.com/nativity_set_home_study.html for all of the prices and details.

Stop by the store to see all the new and exciting canvases arriving over the next few months. Susie